All posts tagged ‘Rant’

This is the Summer of Fiscal Responsibility. Congress prompted a sovereign credit downgrade because of it, and at least two professional sports leagues ground to a halt in its name. Earlier this week, the geek community got official word that balancing the Almighty Dollar was the cause of death for a quality science fiction show, Eureka.

Syfy confirmed that the quirky show about lovable sheriff and a town filled with geniuses was going to complete its current 13-episode run and then call it quits in 2012. The official statement called it a “difficult business decision” not to renew, but promised that the series arcs will be allowed to conclude. In addition to to a holiday episode in December, Eureka will close out their run with 12 final episodes in 2012. Geek icon Wil Wheaton — who had a recurring role as a foil to fellow nerd Douglas Fargo — posted a quote from executive producer Amy Berg indicating that the creative interest in the show was overcome by the bottom line.

While most can appreciate or even laud the network’s, and its parent company NBCUniversal’s, grounded sense of accounting, the announcement just adds negativity to the new rebranding of the channel as a place where good shows go to get frakked.

Resisting Science Fiction

The parentage of the channel in the early 1990s include both horror and science fiction. Initially, Paramount and Universal used Sci-Fi as a conduit for classic series, like Night Gallery and Star Trek. These genres remain the roots of Syfy programming despite a decade of corporate baton passing that handed the channel to NBC Universal in 2004. Executives have resisted this tradition almost from the beginning, and that is why professional wrestling and reality programming are fixtures in the regular schedule.

Cancelations are as much a part of the the SyFy identity as alien abductions and cylons. Since the Sci-Fi Channel rebranded two years ago, suits have kicked a number of quality science fiction shows to the curb. Fans of Caprica and Stargate Universe lamented the lack of support as Syfy strengthened their commitment to the WWE. Prior to that, the network shocked many fans and critics in 2002 by dumping Farscape, a move that some say will be forever associated with NBC’s premature plug-pulling of the original Star Trek series four decades earlier. Similarly, The Dresden Files, with a literary following and an appealing performance by lead Paul Blackthorne, bit the dust in 2007 after one season. The network eventually cited poor ratings despite evidence to the contrary. Losing Eureka just adds to this legacy.

Greenfield argued that Settlers, despite its fans, is not poised to become the next Monopoly, but will forever be “relegated to up-and-coming status — like soccer, or Vespas.” (Soccer — or football — fans might take issue with that statement.) Her main argument seems to be that Settlers owes its popularity, paradoxically, to its obscurity. That its fans like having it be an in-joke, that the reason it’s a top seller is because it hasn’t hit mainstream status yet.

To be sure, there is something to be said that people are buying Settlers and not Monopoly because they don’t have the former yet and already own umpteen copies of the latter. But Greenfield suggests that fans of Settlers would prefer to keep it under wraps. It’s like that bit in “Portlandia” where anything that becomes mainstream is “so over,” or the overused phrase “I liked it before it was cool.”

New from the “Dear God, no” pile comes Planes, flying your way in 2013 from DisneyToon Studios, the same people that brought you The Lion King 1 1/2. What do you mean, you don’t remember that one? It was a classic, retelling the same story as The Lion King, just from a different point of view. Why bother trying to make a proper sequel to one of your most successful films, when you can cobble together another one from the dregs on the cutting room floor?

Unfortunately, it seems that our beloved Pixar movies are heading down the same route, now that they’ve been swallowed up by the Mouse. A trailer for Planes was released yesterday on YouTube and, although the animation looks to be on a par with Pixar’s, I seriously doubt that this direct-to-DVD/Blu-ray film will come anywhere near Pixar’s caliber. Even though the first Cars movie was essentially a retelling of Doc Hollywood, it still had enough originality and excitement to make it one of Pixar’s most popular films. Note I said “most popular,” not “best,” and that’s probably the whole point.

Last week, one of the stories coming out of Toy Fair 2011 was Hasbro’s latest spin on Monopoly, called Monopoly Live. It uses a computerized tower in the center of the board with built-in infrared sensors that can recognize where the pawns are and whose turn it is to move. Everything is automated—you hold your hand over your pawn and it tells you how many spaces to move. You want to buy something? Insert your bankcard and it automatically deducts the proper amount.

According to this New York Times article, “Hasbro hopes that the computerized Monopoly will appeal to a generation raised on video games amid a tough market for traditional board games.” I suppose there are some of these kids “raised on video games” might think that a talking cylinder suddenly makes Monopoly a whole lot more exciting. But I doubt it. Continue Reading “GeekDad Rant: Mono-puh-LEEZE!” »

“The televisions these days, they depreciate when you take them home. Like a used car.” – Customer Service manager at [insert electronics store here.]

Dear retail customer service folks, that was the justification I received when I was handed a gift card for nearly a third less than what I paid for the LCD HD Television I was exchanging via a warranty exchange. I raised one eyebrow to express puzzlement to the manager, then proceeded with a short diatribe into the logical and perfectly rational reason why he was completely wrong in his assessment in the situation and why he was making a mistake. Not to mention, the gift card I was originally handed wouldn’t even cover the tax on the replacement television. After a short discussion, then attempting the transaction again in the computer, a gift card was created with the correct amount. As a customer, I was finally satiated, but still left in mild bemusement at the complete level of incompetence I routinely experience when dealing with retail customer service representatives.

Now, to be clear – this isn’t everywhere and everyone. This is a select bunch of folks who seem destined to cross my path when I walk into a store to return something. With electronics, this happens often enough to warrant a rant. The lack of intelligence and general problem solving skills, not to mention the seemingly oblivious behavior when it comes to standard transactions, is amazingly curious for this day and age. Perhaps it’s simply a lack of training, perhaps it’s a lax standard in education up to that point. Perhaps they really just don’t care. Having worked in retail myself for many years in my formative years, I’d have to say it’s a little bit of all three. So how can the retail customer service folks optimize their service? How can they get better at what they do so I don’t have to explain it to them every time I walk into a store? Here are a couple ideas that have been around for a while they may want to take heed to.